Lately, I’ve been receiving all these emails from Washington, D.C.’s oldest historical buildings-the Marine Corps War Memorial, the Washington National Cathedral, Dumbarton Oaks-asking me to vote for them on social media. And I didn’t understand why. Now I do.
According to an article in The Washington Post, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the American Express Foundation are bringing a $1 million “American Idol”-inspired contest to Washington this spring. The historical properties with the most tweets, friends and votes can win as much as $100,000. The National Cathedral is apparently in the lead. “The organization taped a YouTube video featuring mason foreman Joe Alonso to make a pitch for the 106-year-old building, which still has safety netting in place to protect against crumbling mortar.”
This may be the most clear-cut social media ROI we’ve seen: get the most traffic, win $100,000. The mix of old and new reminds me a little of my conversation with Lisa Anthony, publisher of InFaith Publishing Group. “We’re trying to help [the priests with tweeting],” she said. “They don’t know how to use LinkedIn, and they’re intimidated by Facebook. That’s more for the parents and parishioners and takes more commitment than Twitter. Sixty-three is the average age of a Catholic priest, so you can see there is some educating to do…We’ll try things on social media to test the market. We put a saints piece on Facebook and it went over really well…For Twitter we’ll post surveys and links to promotions or content we’re running. We’ve even done force-free trials on Twitter.”
Anthony uses SocialOomph.com to help her with social media. “It helps me schedule my tweets throughout the day, so I’m not overdoing it,” she said.
The upcoming SIPA 2013 Conference, June 5-7, in Washington, D.C., will feature both a session and a roundtable on social media—and many networking conversations. Social Media: The Big Picture for Marketers will be led by Rachel Yeomans, vice president of marketing at Astek and proprietor of The Working Wardrobe website.
Lesley Ellen Harris, who was profiled in this space on Monday and will be speaking on copyright at the Conference, is also hooked on social media. Her advice: “Go on Twitter, see who’s retweeting what. Go into LinkedIn and contribute to discussions and dialogue. Social media is fine but it’s not the first thing I would do every day. It’s a way to share what you’re doing. But you can’t get carried away. If you have an addictive personality, stay away. Be very realistic. My friend says that at the end of every workday, she spends 15 minutes on LinkedIn. That’s okay if you can keep to that. I love blogging, but it takes a lot of time [whereas] I can do Twitter while eating lunch or in a carpool line.”
There is also a method to the madness of supporting your local historical monument this way. “Voting online, posting photos and tweets after visits all score points and—ideally—increases the buildings’ exposure to visitors and the organizations’ capacity for marketing through social media,” the Post wrote.
It’s an interesting concept, almost teetering towards gamification. Have a contest, draw people to your site. The key might be that once they’re there, you need to take full advantage and engage. Sure enough, there it is on the National Museum of Women in the Arts site: “We broke the glass ceiling—now we need a new roof! These funds will support vital roof repairs that will ensure the continued integrity of NMWA’s building—and a place for women artists.”
Clear and clever. Social media may require some out-of-the-box thinking—and may not always lead so directly to monetization—but its upside is very high. Try things.
Ronn Levine began his career as a reporter for The Washington Post and has won numerous writing and publications awards since. Most recently, he spent 12 years at the Newspaper Association of America covering a variety of topics before joining SIPA in 2009 as managing editor. Follow Ronn on Twitter at @SIPAOnline